§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what percentage of patients in each cancer speciality referred by their general practitioners are referred(a) urgently and (b) non-urgently; [27233]
(2) how many patients in each cancer specialty were referred by their general practitioners, (a) urgently and (b) non-urgently, in the last year for which figures are available; [27231]
(3) what percentage of patients in each cancer speciality referred to by their general practitioners as (a) urgent and (b) non-urgent are seen within a month. [27232]
§ Yvette CooperThe two-week out-patient waiting time standard was introduced for urgent cases of suspected breast cancer from April 1999 and was extended to all other urgent cases of suspected cancer during 2000. Performance data against the standard are shown in the table. Data for non-urgent referrals are not collected centrally.
Full implementation of the maximum target wait of one month from diagnosis to their first definitive treatment for breast cancer was introduced on 31 December 2001. Central monitoring began on 1 January 2002 and data will be published later in the year.
537W
2001–02 Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Cancer site Number of referrals Number seen within 14 days Percentage seen within 14 days Number of referrals Number seen within 14 days Percentage seen within 14 days Breast 21,918 21,001 95.8 23,039 21,624 93,9 Children's 107 107 100.0 105 102 97.1 Lung 4,328 4,028 93.1 4,217 3,991 94.6 Haematological malignancies including leukaemia 537 507 94.4 650 625 96.2 Upper Gastrointestinal 5,775 5,296 91.7 6,604 6,041 91.5 Lower Gastrointestinal 10,562 9,468 89.6 12,235 10,975 89.7 Skin 8,419 7,690 91.3 10,314 9,120 88.4 Gynaecological 4,400 4,035 91.7 5,423 4,960 91.5 Brain/Central Nervous System 199 180 90.5 260 241 92.7 Urological 5,185 4,444 85.7 6,596 5,573 84.5 Head and Neck 3,452 3,212 93.0 4,169 3,936 94.4 Sarcomas 138 130 94.2 139 125 89.9 Other Cancers 378 360 95.2 353 337 95.5 Source:
Department of Health form QMCW